GooCart's 1 Build

[Rhubarb Red]

And there I was attacking innocent lumps of mahogany with hammers, chisels, routers and belt sanders when Magnus cruises past (in a pink Cadillac with rocket tail fins) and gets farther than I have in a fraction of the time, thanks to his mastery of the CAD/CAM machine. Amazing stuff.

Magnus - are you going to paint the guitar yourself of send it to Canada?

Also, as I bought a corian top "dummy" from Leif Jacobsson I can attest to the fact Leif is a great guy - I just wilt at his command of English when the only Swedish words I know are Ikea, Volvo and Abba.

Funny, but I've decided to make a single cut Junior first, even though I've cracked making the neck, fingerboard and body of a standard; but how to carve the maple top using the dummy is going to need considerably more thought than I have time for at the moment.

I had a spare neck blank and I've made a Junior neck with the big mortice Juniors had and I've got a Spanish cedar (cedrela) body blank I'm going to use, as I don't want to commit one of my Honduran blanks (bought from Neil Morgan, who posts on this forum) to it.

I'm also curious to see what the Spanish cedar is like to work with as it's generally lighter in weight than Honduran and the best mid-50s Juniors I've played were light-ish. And Spanish cedar is fairly easy to source in the UK.

[GooCart]

Hey Red, glad to hear from you.
I like the pink Cadillac simile, that's how it feel right now. A little to easy so far, but I'm sure it'll change one of these days.

My plan is to paint it my self, that's part of the challenge.

Speaking of painting, I'd be glad for some color proposals. I'm thinking of a mint, under the bed look, but it's still wide open.

[Erx15]

Maybe a nice honeyburst?
Or maybe some color schemes for the swedish mythology?

[rockappalla]

c'mon Magnus, we need more pics

[MRJ]

I agree with the honey burst.

[GooCart]

OK, today it was time for me to finally get my hands dirty. It was time for the binding.
At first I had thought to do it like ex nihilo, with a acetone/binding solution, but after talking it over with Tom I decided to go with some superglue instead.

I was pretty afraid messing it up, but I took my time and was careful and the result was great. Here are some photos.

I started at the strap side, I wanted to get some practice before the horn and the cutaway. I spread the glue for about 10-20 cm and pressed, then I repeated it until I got to the horn. Here I stopped and used a heat gun at low heat and formed the binding around the horn.



Then I continued around the cutaway, low heat and forming the binding.



Voila!! Horn and cutaway done.



It just needed some mild scraping on the top. I don't want to do any final sanding yet.

[ex-nihilo]

Looks great! That is a fabulous top Magnus. It has really nice figure.

[Texas07R8]

outstanding! Man that maple is going to scream when you finally shoot some color on it. It looks like old wood, very nice top and man that carve makes that top look an inch thick!

Regarding color, sorry but I have to say BROCKBURST with a deep cherry back!

[LG2]

brockburst with a deep cherry back!

+100

[Shai`tan]

Beautiful!

[rockappalla]

GREAT! I used superglue too, very effective and it comes out perfect, and it takes 20 min to do the whole guitar!

[DGNRepair]

Great job on the binding. Nice build thread as well.

[GooCart]

Nothing big today, I just did some sanding to see what the mahogany really looks like. I'm not touching the area around the neck joint until the neck is set.



Close up



On this photo I managed to capture the top carve.
Brockburst... yeah, I think that would be great.

[V!N]

I used to love Brockburst. Back when it was rare and only put on guitars with similar figure. When it started to appear on every, every custom build or refin, it kind of lost its appeal to me. Then Gibson made it a "regular" colour: Bourbonburst and it started to get even more common. The final straw was seeing a plain top R4 Brockburst .. Or was it the Tele with maple cap in bockwurst ?

I personally think that colour is overdone by now.
But hey, it's your guitar !

[Knarbens]

Wow! Awesome! That looks so perfect and clean ...
nearly like a 3D-model!

[Metamatic]

Just excellent Magnus. I am doing it the old fashioned way but have been thinking of making my own CNC out of spare parts.

What kind of material did you use for the bindings?
I found some great Celluloid yellow vintage bindings material that I will use on the forth coming buildings.

Oh, just as a parentese (not to steal Magnus´s thread) as this is my first post here I have to show you what is going on in my work shop.

This will hopefully be a '57 Gold Top replica.

Greetings from Malmö, Sweden!

[GooCart]

Hi Metamatic, I think I've seen you and your work on some other guitar forums. It's nice with a fellow Swede here. Your build is pretty impressing for a guy like me who have no experience in the carving part.

I got the binding from Tom Bartlett, I think it's Royalite by Spartech but I'm not sure. It's vintage looking and was very easy to work with.

Looking forward to see some more builds from you.

[SiriusAbbott]

On this photo I managed to capture the top carve.

Magnus,that is just fooking beautiful!!!

[McOmio]

So when do we see neck progress

[The baron of norsworthy]

magnus what speed did you use for the router??

I like the natural look myself.

[shtdaprdtr]

I say you make it the same color as pearly

[GooCart]

shtdaprdtr, I looked through the BOTB yesterday and it strike me that those darkbursts or tobacco burst are pretty cool, at least when they are faded as Pearly Gates and the Slash/Perry 'burst.
I don't know, in the end I think I'll go with a Tea/Honey sunburst and a faded, orange back and use a similar spray patter as on ex-nihilos replica, my R8 is sprayed by Tom Bartlett in a similar pattern.

Leif has been busy with other projects so the neck isn't cut yet but I have done something else I really hope will be cool.
I've sent my celluloid sheet to a company that will laser cut the inlays after my drawings. They are also going to laser cut the headstock veneer and the logo cavity. I'll use the celluloid for the logo also, I know it's not vintage accurate but I don't really care about that, maybe in my next build

If it works, if the old sheet won't burst out in flames, I think it's going to be cool. Imagine the assembling , 100% fit and extreme tight tolerances for the logo. The coolest is that I'll be able to assemble the logo before gluing the veneer to the headstock. I get back about it Monday or Tuesday.

Baron, I'll check those things with Leif.

[shtdaprdtr]

im in the wrong profession...I need a CNC (actually have one at work...but Im too retarded to use it...and in this economic state I couldnt ask anyone else cause if they find out im building guitars instead of working...ill be on the line!)

anyway..I say do it vintage correct...if it comes out great..itll be perfect..the wood already is.

[The baron of norsworthy]

Originally Posted by GooCart

Baron, I'll check those things with Leif.

Cool

I think you might be surprised, how your unfinished guitar sounds compared to your reissues.

[GooCart]

Today Leif made time to cut the rest of the neck. It was a smooth ride all the way but when the CNC should cut the very end of the tenon the neck moved a bit in the matrix. The result was a minimal cut in the end of the neck, it won't be a problem since the fretboard will cover it, but kind of disturbing anyway.

The next thing in line is the fretboard, I cant wait to put this thing together and start sanding it. The neck is pretty rough right out of the CNC and I really like the sanding part.

Here are some photos where I've put it together, it starts to look like a guitar







The neck joint is great right out of the CNC. I'll fix the wobbly back radius later when I'll start the serious sanding.

[MRJ]

Magnus, that is probably the nicest looking LP I've ever seen! I mean it! It has a beautiful figure on the top, the way the grain does on the body looks awesome! Please keep the pictures coming!

[monsterwalley]

Very very nice. I can't wait to see how it turns out

I notice a lot of people do the roundover on the back of the body right away.

I was always worried about getting a ding in the edge durning the construction process so I always did it right before the neck get's glued in. Then again Your at where It takes me month and a half to get to

Yeah i'm jealous

[GooCart]

Hi guys, thanks for the kind words.

I've received a couple of mails regarding the top carve file from members that maybe not where around here when I modeled it. Just to clarify, the file that's been used for the top carve of this build is the same file as we use on the Eastern Maple Carved Top's and the file is not for sale or for sharing under any circumstances.


This is the first time I've seen the top carve "live", I've seen it as computer renderings and off course in the scrap wood test cuts I did during the modeling phase, but never cut in such a beautiful maple as the one I got. Actually, I've never seen prettier maple in real life before and the grain really strengthens the lines of the top. Tom do really have a way of finding some really nice maple blanks.

One more outdoor photo, just for the fun of it. As you see there were still some fine adjustment to do for a 100% fit when i shot it. It's all taken care of now.



I'm still waiting for the laser cut inlays but in the meantime I've ordered a bunch of stuff from RS Guitarworks for the build. I have just about NO patience, I can't hardly sleep when I'm waiting on something.

[rockappalla]

That is outstanding! the only problem is that's gonna turn out too precise

I'll start my new build with the cnc in a couple of months, i have yet to decide wether to build it completely with the cnc or making some templates (sometimes it's quicker since my cnc isn't very fast)

[ex-nihilo]

Super!!